For better or worse, it's summer break

Summer break. As a kid I loved it, as an adult I missed it, and now as a mom of kids who love it I Ö well letís just say I have mixed feelings.

I will say that I was looking forward to my daughterís summer break just about as much as she was. There is just something about the end of the school year that equals busy, busy, busy. So it was nice to know that after that last school bell rang it was going to mean our busy lives were going to slow down a bit. Well, theoretically anyway. At least we arenít so scheduled.

So day one of summer vacation arrives. Time for fun, time to be silly, time to get to do all the things we didnít seem to have time to do before. It always is a little more exciting in theory that in reality isnít it? I say this because by the afternoon of day one I am ready for school to start up again.

In all fairness it wasnít a nice day and the kids couldnít go outside and play. However, I find it very interesting that by simply adding one kid to the mix, the noise level in the house increases three fold. Why is that?

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It seems now everything is a fight, every game excludes one sibling or another, someoneís feelings are always hurt or someone is always getting hurt. I find myself repeating what I am saying more, having to say it louder (even right now as I am typing I have told my kids to stop throwing sand and dumping sand on each otherís heads at least three times). Is it the simple addition of one child (the ring leader so to speak) or does the warm air and sunshine do something to their brains that makes them unable to listen and follow simple directions (you would not believe how long it takes my son to wash his hands)? This coupled with the ďwhyĒ stage from my youngest and I feel like I am in one of the those Catch-22 stages where I canít leave them alone for fear of what they may do to each other and when I am with them I canít have a momentís peace. As I say about all this, my daughter brings me my third sand ďcookie,Ē so I know I really have nothing to complain about.

One interesting evolvement with my little crew recently is the rise in physical violence that has occurred. I donít know if it has anything to do with an extra kid being at home all day or it is just happened to coincide with it, but lately there has been a rash of pushing, kicking, hitting, tripping, sitting on others and other general mayhem under our roof. Is it the increased exposure to the sun? Something in popsicle juice maybe?

Along with attacks of the physical kind there has been an uptick in harassment among our three little darlings. We are all familiar with lines ďheís looking at me,Ē ďsheís breathing on me,Ē and ďheís making noises at me.Ē Anyone who has ever had a sibling knows exactly how merciless and frustrating it can be. And to the kids, too.

I will admit this rough housing is all pretty new to me. Even though I grew up with three siblings I canít think of a time where we ever hauled out and punched each other in the back or tripped each other in a mad rush to get somewhere first (both of which I have witnessed with my own kids). Perfect angels we most definitely were not, we just never did that one thing it seemed all other siblings did.

It may have skipped a generation, but it alive and well with my kids. I fear it is only going to get worse as they get older. I mean if my sweet adorable looking two-year-old daughter is already shoving her brother and pushing him to the floor for no other reason than to get in front of him so she can get in the car first, my kids are either going to be spending a lot of time in time-out, or in the get-along-shirt. (If you havenít heard of this, look it up. Whoever came up with this idea was a genius.)

In between the shoving, hitting and pretend cutting of their siblings (ah, yes, that one happened today as well. ďBut MomĒ was the protest, ďI was just pretending.Ē) I know there will be lots of fun had this summer too. Park time, library time, walks and picnic lunches are all adventures I hope we have during the warm summer months.

And while I know some days will be more challenging than others long as the sun is shining and the mosquitoes stop biting I think I can handle just about anything.